Well, mission accomplished. As we watch Americans from coast to coast bask in the fresh breath and healthier colons caused by our medicinal plants in pill form, we know it's time to walk away from this site.
OK - so the first part of that is a joke, but the second part is not. After nearly five years of writing about our beloved Arkansas Razorbacks, John and I are hanging up our blogging shoes. Actually, as eagle-eyed observers are aware, John pretty much retired from the site about six months ago. I've decided to now follow him out the exit door.
While my Razorback fandom has not abated, the time and energy that I can devote to managing and writing for this site certainly has. About a year ago, I began to feel the pangs of blogger burnout. I kept thinking and hoping that I would recapture my earlier mojo and once again start cranking out the posts, but despite a few bursts of renewed enthusiasm, that didn't happen. Both my heart and my head tell me that now is the time to move on.
I don't know exactly what the future holds for this site. However, current staffers KevinHog, Doc Harper, beauwilcox and dxf04 will continue to post when they can, and SB Nation has begun looking for new contributors to manage the blog and provide daily (or as-close-to-daily-as-possible) content. I'm sure that when the 2012 football season arrives this site will be running at full steam again.
Before I sign off, there are some people I'd like to thank for making this blog such a great experience (apologies if this sounds like an award acceptance speech). First off, a big thanks to John; creating and producing this site with him was more fun than even I originally imagined. Another big thanks to the four contributors listed above: I can't overstate how much I appreciate their fantastic work on this site, and I look forward to their future postings. Thanks as well to others who have posted over the years: Whit E. Knight, J. Hawg 3, The Hog Blogger, aboynamedsooie, gargohawg and CharlieHog.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much I've appreciated the way media members such as Chris Bahn, Jim Harris, Bob Holt and T.J. Carpenter have helped the site by either participating in Q&As and podcasts or by somehow featuring our work.
Tyler Bleszinski, Peter Bean, Joel Hollingsworth and Drew Dunlevie at SB Nation also deserve a hearty "muchos gracias" for all of their support and guidance these past few years.
Finally, a huge, huge thanks to you, our readers and commenters. In our introductory post, John and I wrote that we were aiming to create a site that talked about the Hogs "in a spirit of good humor, balance and perspective." The comment threads always displayed that spirit, and your intelligent and witty remarks were a huge part of what made this site so enjoyable for us.
I don't want to make this seem like a complete farewell - I will be an avid reader of the site and plan to pipe up in the comment threads (and John and I may return once in a blue moon for podcasts or to convey Rasputin's latest predictions). Still, you'll definitely be seeing a lot less of me. Thus, I offer the words used by Garrison Keillor to close each installment of "The Writer's Alamac":
"Be well, do good work and keep in touch."
And, oh yeah, Woo Pig Sooie!